1, Clough Lee

The Nineteenth Century

There is an Indenture of Settlement in the Deeds, of 1 Clough Lea dated 22nd January 1881. However, the house did not exist in the 1881 Census, although the house next door (now No.2) did exist and was lived in by the family of Samuel France, weaver.

The rudimentary building plans for Number 1 are in Huddersfield Library. It is headed, 'Plan of Building at Clough Lee for Mr W Holroyd of Smithy Holme'.(Smithy Holme is by the canal at Warehouse Hill) The plans are dated April 1889.

Number 1 is first shown on the 6" Ordnance Survey map, which was surveyed in 1890. No church or parochial hall was shown (neither was then built), and there was a line of trees across the bottom of the garden.

The Gledhill family

The 1891 Census shows the Gledhill family from Golcar living in number 1 Clough Lee, which was listed as having more than 5 rooms:

Edwin Gledhill was the head of the household. He was 48 years old, and was a Foreman cloth finisher.

Ann Gledhill, his Wife, was 45

Frederick Gledhill, their Son, 22 yrs, was a Woollen cloth finisher.

Ann R Gledhill, their daughter, 18 yrs, was a Woollen cloth mender.

Harold Gledhill, their youngest Son, 5 yrs, was the only one in the family born in Marsden.

In 1881 the Gledhill family had been living in Argyle Street, Marsden. This census shows they had another daughter - Fanny, who was then an apprentice dressmaker.

Edwin Gledhill was a tenant of William Holroyd, Farmer, as were Luke Whitehead and Selina Gunning in the cottages next door.

William Holroyd, the owner of the house

In 1881, William Holroyd, age 45, was a farmer at Rough Lee, Marsden. His first wife was Hannah Sykes22:34 20/06/2005His wife was called Mary Ann Firth(born in Stainland, near Halifax). Their eldest son, John William Holroyd, no longer lived at home in 1881. Apart from John, they had 5 sons, all of whom worked as Railway Labourers.(By 1891, John William had become a farmer at Netherend, and the next son, Joseph, had become a joiner on Towngate.) William Holroyd was wealthy enough to be able to employ a domestic nurse, Emily Jessop, for his youngest son, George, in 1881. By the 1891 Census, William and Mary Holroyd were farming at Smithy Holme.

On 6th May 1894 William Holroyd, farmer, of Smithy Holme, Marsden (born 1836), made a Will, leaving his estate to his eldest son, John William Holroyd (born 1856), and his son-in-law, John Thomas Whitehead (a tailor and woollen draper), and 30 shillings a week to his widow, Mary Ann Holroyd. He also gave his three cottages at Clough Lee to these sons - these three cottages were those occupied by Edwin Gledhill , Selina Gunning, and Luke Whitehead.

William Holroyd also had a daughter, Mary Hannah Holroyd. In 1881, Mary lived with her widowed aunt, Hannah Schofield, at Golden Ally, and she was a weaver. Mary had married Abraham Kinder, tailor, by 1891, and lived in the Grove. William Holroyd left the rent of the three cottages to her, with instructions that the cottages should be sold after Mary Hannah Kinder's death, and the proceeds shared among her, as yet unborn, children.

10 May 1894 William Holroyd died, aged 68. By the 16th June, John Thomas Whitehead, who lived in the Grove (as did the Kinders) was the only surviving Beneficiary, so he became the sole owner of the three Clough Lea houses.

The Twentieth Century

7 May 1898 Mary Hannah Kinder re-married, this time to Luther Ellis, a cloth finisher who had also been married before. Frank Ellis was their only child, born 26 December 1899.

17 June 1919 Mary Hannah Ellis died. Frank Ellis did not want John Thomas Whitehead to sell the cottages (as in William Holroyd's Will), so Whitehead gave the Clough Lea cottages to Frank Ellis in 1921 (Frank Ellis not attaining the age of majority until 26 Dec 1920, although he was already described as a widower in 1921). Because the property was Copyhold, Frank Ellis had to pay the Lord of the Manor (Sir Joseph Edward Radcliffe of Rudding Park, Harrogate) 10 shillings a year.

17 July 1925 Frank Ellis, of 195 Longwood Road, Huddersfield, agreed to pay the Lord of the Manor £4 14s 2d for the freehold on the houses at Clough Lea.

The neighbouring properties at the time were owned by Emma Whiteley France (at number 2), the Vicar of Marsden, and Margaret Hannah Holroyd (to the west).

At this time the houses were lived in by Hannah Fallas (who must have been 68 yrs), Harold Brook (who must have been 34), and William Arthur Sykes (at 1 Clough Lea). At the time, fresh water was taken from a spring on the land of Margaret Hannah Holroyd.

Wrigley Firth

July 1925 Wrigley Firth bought 1 Clough Lea from Frank Ellis for £350. Wrigley Firth was a farmer at Badger Hey, Marsden, born in 1872. His father was Enoch Firth, a farmer at Badger Gate. His wife was Beatrice Maud Firth, and they had a daughter, Eileen Mary Firth, and a son, Leslie Vernon Wrigley Firth, a Joiner and Cabinet-maker. Although Wrigley Firth owned the house, it was William Arthur Sykes who lived in it.

19 September 1925 Frank Ellis sold the rest of the Cloughley land and two of the dwelling houses (the two cottages to the west side) to Harold Brook, weaver. The two houses were occupied at the time by Harold Brook and Hannah Fallas.

30 October 1925 Wrigley Firth made his Will, with his Executor being his daughter Eileen Mary Firth. In 1934 he added his son, Leslie Vernon Wrigley Firth to the beneficiaries.

In 1952 Colne Valley Urban District Council served notice on 1 Clough Lea to:
"Abolish the insanitary privy and ashpit and provide for the use of this house a washdown pedestal water closet with sufficient flushing apparatus and drainage suitably connected to the sewer. Provide for the use of this house a new dustbin. A subsidy of £5 will be paid by the Council for each W.C. provided."

Wrigley Firth died in 1956, and his widow and two children sold the house to John Emmett Brook, Power Loom Tuner, and Evelyn Brook for £400, in June 1956.